Monday, October 28, 2013

New England School Of Law Rumored To Cut 14 Faculty

The TaxProfBlog is reporting on a rumored new measure at the New England School of Law to eliminate 14 fulltime faculty positions by August 1, 2014. According to information at TaxProfBlog: "Depending on how one counts, this is about 35-40% of the regular faculty. The School's entering class was up in 2012, but was down in 2013 and by some accounts the School has an endowment of $80,000,000. Faculty have been told by Dean John O'Brien that these 14 positions will be eliminated according to the School's needs, regardless of tenure or seniority. An incentive plan has been offered to senior faculty and certain clinical faculty, but those who don't take it have been threatened with termination. Their decisions must be final by the end of the Fall term. Those who still do not comply or were not offered the plan, were told that if they remain, their workload during the next academic year will move from 2 to as much as 4 courses per semester and that they will be required to be at their desks from 9 to 5 each day of the work week or an equivalent time period if they are teaching evening classes."I bet that many law schools across the country are taking similar measures. The schools are likely utilizing the regular faculty to teach classes that were once taught by adjuncts in better times. This means a higher per term teaching load for the regular faculty. As for the 40 hour workweek, some may think that this is a gesture of good faith by the law school to show that the faculty are working hard -- something that has been recently criticized.When looking at the news sources on this information, it appears that the law faculty are taking the brunt of the criticism. It's gone so far as having an ABA Council recommend the elimination of tenure requirements.At this point, only time will tell what the future holds for all law schools as the various administrations continue to react to the drop in enrollment.

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About Me

I am a law librarian and professor of scholarly writing. I also perform a variety of pro bono legal representation.
All posts and opinions on this blog are mine and are not affiliated with an institution.